Multi-Lane Optical Transport Network Recovery

ABSTRACT

Concepts and technologies for multi-lane optical transport network recovery are provided herein. In an embodiment, a system includes a multi-lane optical transceiver. The multi-lane optical transceiver can include a transmitter optical sub-assembly, a receiver optical sub-assembly, and a controller that includes a processor and a memory that stores computer-executable instructions that, in response to execution by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations. The operations can include detecting an optical interruption event corresponding to an optical lane within a multi-lane optical path. The operations can further include instantiating an optical protocol alarm based on the optical interruption event. The operations can further include generating an optical protocol message based on the optical protocol alarm. The operations can further include instructing a peer multi-lane optical transceiver to alter optical transmission along the multi-lane optical path based on the optical protocol message.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/988,377, entitled “Multi-Lane Optical TransportNetwork Recovery,” filed May 24, 2018, now allowed, which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Conventional telecommunication networks have historically relied on thetransmission of electrical signals as the sole means to pass informationacross vast distances. As smart phones and other portable devicesincreasingly become ubiquitous, and data usage increases, theconventional wired and wireless infrastructure can require higherbandwidth capability in order to address the increased demand. Toreceive additional mobile and fixed communication bandwidth, most homesand businesses have grown to rely on broadband data access for servicessuch as voice, video, and access to the Internet. An effort to furtherincrease bandwidth has resulted in the implementation of opticalnetworks to rapidly convey large amounts of information between remotepoints at speeds that were historically not possible to achieve.However, conventional implementations of optical networks can havepoints of weakness that can leave the optical network vulnerable tocommunication failure, thereby potentially causing user complaints and areduction of communicative transmissions. For example, optical fibersmay be cut, portions of the optical fibers may no longer function,and/or transmission and receiving devices of the optical networks maynot function properly. In conventional optical networks, faults, errors,interruptions, and/or malfunctions can cause the conventional opticalnetworks to cease all communications using the optical connection andinhibit all communication between remote points that werecommunicatively coupled by the optical fiber, irrespective of thefunctioning of other elements within the conventional optical network.As such, conventional implementations and conventional mechanisms toenable an optical network to recover from faults, errors, and/orinterruptions have not provided a reliable and efficient use of networkresources.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure is directed to multi-lane optical transportnetwork recovery that can enable continued optical network functionalityfollowing the occurrence of errors, faults, interruptions, and/or dataloss within at least a portion of an optical transport network.According to one aspect of the concepts and technologies disclosedherein, a system is described. The system can include a multi-laneoptical transceiver that is communicatively coupled to a peer multi-laneoptical transceiver via a multi-lane optical path. In an embodiment, themulti-lane optical transceiver can include a transmitter opticalsub-assembly and a receiver optical sub-assembly. The transmitteroptical sub-assembly can include a plurality of optical transmitters,and the receiver optical sub-assembly can include a plurality of opticalreceivers. In some embodiments, an optical receiver can include aphotonic diode. In some embodiments, an optical transmitter can includean optical device driver, such as but not limited to, one or more of alaser device driver and/or a light emitting diode device driver. Themulti-lane optical transceiver also can include a power supply that canprovide power to at least the transmitter optical sub-assembly and thereceiver optical sub-assembly. In various embodiments, the multi-laneoptical transceiver can further include a controller that includes aprocessor and a memory that stores computer-executable instructions. Inresponse to execution of the computer-executable instructions by theprocessor, the processor can be caused to perform operations thatinclude detecting an optical interruption event corresponding to anoptical lane within a multi-lane optical path. The operations canfurther include instantiating an optical protocol alarm based on theoptical interruption event. The operations can further includegenerating an optical protocol message based on the optical protocolalarm. The operations can further include instructing a peer multi-laneoptical transceiver to alter optical transmission along the multi-laneoptical path based on the optical protocol message.

In some embodiments, the multi-lane optical path can include the opticallane corresponding to the optical interruption event and a plurality ofoptical lanes that do not correspond with the optical interruptionevent. In some embodiments, the optical protocol message instructs thepeer multi-lane optical transceiver to alter optical transmission byrouting data through the plurality of optical lanes that do notcorrespond with the optical interruption event. In some embodiments,power is maintained to an optical transmitter of the multi-lane opticaltransceiver that is associated with the optical lane that correspondswith the optical interruption event, but data is not provided to theoptical transmitter until the optical interruption event is no longerdetected. In some embodiments, the optical protocol message instructsthe peer multi-lane optical transceiver to alter optical transmission bythrottling bandwidth of the multi-lane optical path to below a bandwidthminimum threshold. In some embodiments, the detection of the opticalinterruption event includes determining that data transmission via theoptical lane is interrupted for at least a time period. In someembodiments, detecting the optical interruption event includesdetermining that a wavelength is not detected for the optical lane fromthe multi-lane optical path. In some embodiments, the optical protocolmessage can include an optical transmission command that alters atransmission configuration implemented by the peer multi-lane opticaltransceiver.

According to another aspect of the concepts and technologies disclosedherein, a method is disclosed. The method can include detecting, by amulti-lane optical transceiver, an optical interruption eventcorresponding to an optical lane within a multi-lane optical path. Themethod can further include instantiating, by the multi-lane opticaltransceiver, an optical protocol alarm based on the optical interruptionevent. The method can further include generating, by the multi-laneoptical transceiver, an optical protocol message based on the opticalprotocol alarm. The method can further include instructing, by themulti-lane optical transceiver, a peer multi-lane optical transceiver toalter optical transmission along the multi-lane optical path based onthe optical protocol message.

In some embodiments, the multi-lane optical path can include the opticallane corresponding to the optical interruption event and a plurality ofoptical lanes that do not correspond with the optical interruptionevent. In some embodiments, the optical protocol message instructs thepeer multi-lane optical transceiver to alter optical transmission byrouting data through the plurality of optical lanes that do notcorrespond with the optical interruption event. In some embodiments,power can be maintained to a transmitter of the multi-lane opticaltransceiver that is associated with the optical lane that correspondswith the optical interruption event. In some embodiments, the opticalprotocol message instructs the peer multi-lane optical transceiver toalter optical transmission by throttling bandwidth of the multi-laneoptical path to below a bandwidth minimum threshold. In someembodiments, detection of the optical interruption event includesdetermining that a data transmission via the optical lane is interruptedfor at least a time period. In some embodiments, detection of theoptical interruption event includes determining that a wavelength is notdetected for the optical lane from the multi-lane optical path. In someembodiments, the optical protocol message can include an opticaltransmission command that alters a transmission configurationimplemented by the peer multi-lane optical transceiver.

According to yet another aspect, a computer storage medium is disclosed.The computer storage medium can have computer-executable instructionsstored thereon. In some embodiments, the computer storage medium can beincluded within a multi-lane optical transceiver. When thecomputer-executable instructions are executed by a processor, theprocessor can perform operations. The operations can include detectingan optical interruption event corresponding to an optical lane within amulti-lane optical path. The operations can further includeinstantiating an optical protocol alarm based on the opticalinterruption event. The operations can further include generating anoptical protocol message based on the optical protocol alarm. Theoperations can further include instructing a peer multi-lane opticaltransceiver to alter optical transmission along the multi-lane opticalpath based on the optical protocol message. In some embodiments, themulti-lane optical path can include the optical lane corresponding tothe optical interruption event and a plurality of optical lanes that donot correspond with the optical interruption event. In some embodiments,the optical protocol message instructs the peer multi-lane opticaltransceiver to alter optical transmission by routing data through theplurality of optical lanes that do not correspond with the opticalinterruption event. In some embodiments, power can be maintained to atransmitter of the multi-lane optical transceiver that is associatedwith the optical lane that corresponds with the optical interruptionevent. In some embodiments, the optical protocol message instructs thepeer multi-lane optical transceiver to alter optical transmission bythrottling bandwidth of the multi-lane optical path to below a bandwidthminimum threshold. In some embodiments, detection of the opticalinterruption event includes determining that data transmission via theoptical lane is interrupted for at least a time period. In someembodiments, detecting the optical interruption event includesdetermining that a wavelength is not detected for the optical lane fromthe multi-lane optical path.

It should be appreciated that the above-described subject matter may beimplemented as a computer-controlled apparatus, a computer process, acomputing system, or as an article of manufacture such as acomputer-readable storage medium. These and various other features willbe apparent from a reading of the following Detailed Description and areview of the associated drawings.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intendedthat this Summary be used to limit the scope of the claimed subjectmatter. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited toimplementations that solve any or all disadvantages noted in any part ofthis disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a system diagram illustrating an operating environment formulti-lane optical transport network recovery, according to variousembodiments of the concepts and technologies described herein.

FIG. 2A is a flow diagram showing aspects of a method for multi-laneoptical transport network recovery, according to an illustrativeembodiment of the concepts and technologies described herein.

FIG. 2B is a flow diagram showing aspects of a method for multi-laneoptical transport network recovery, according to another illustrativeembodiment of the concepts and technologies described herein.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example network capable ofimplementing aspects of the concepts and technologies described herein.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example computer systemaccording to some illustrative embodiments of the concepts andtechnologies described herein.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example mobile device capableof implementing aspects of a system according to embodiments of theconcepts and technologies described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description is directed to multi-lane opticaltransport network service recovery. Conventionally, when an optical lanewithin a multi-lane optical path experiences an interruption and/orfailure, such as due to a malfunction or failure of an opticaltransmitter, a conventional network element may consider the entiremulti-lane optical path to be faulty and cease all communications alongthe multi-lane optical path. Concepts and technologies discussed hereinenable recovery from a communicative interruption and/or failure withoutceasing all communications along the multi-lane optical path. In variousembodiments, a system can include various network elements that cancollectively operate to perform optical transport functions within acommunications network so as to relay and provide communication couplingto users of the network. In some instances, two or more network elementsmay be considered “peers” to each other based on the relativeconnection, communicative coupling, and communicative functionsperformed with each other via one or more multi-lane optical paths. Forexample, a communications network can include an optical transportnetwork that includes the use of one or more network elements thatprovide a housing or backbone for one or more multi-lane opticaltransceivers that can communicatively couple with “peer” multi-laneoptical transceivers within another network element via one or moremulti-lane optical paths.

When a data package is routed to the network element, the data packagemay be sent to a sending multi-lane optical transceiver of the networkelement, where the data package is segmented, and each data packagesegment is assigned to a wavelength associated with one optical lanewithin a multi-optical path. Each data package segment can bedistributed by the first multi-lane optical transceiver to a peernetwork element, where a receiving multi-lane optical transceiver mayreceive the data package segments. In various embodiments, the sendingmulti-lane optical transceiver (in this example referred to as the firstmulti-lane optical transceiver), may not be able to detect malfunctions(e.g., misfires, failures, or faults) that occur within an optical laneof the multi-lane optical path. Embodiments of the present disclosureenable the receiving multi-lane optical transceiver (in this examplereferring to the multi-lane optical transceiver that receives the datapackage segments) to detect the occurrence of an optical interruptioncorresponding to the use of one or more optical lanes, which can bereferred to as an “optical interruption event”. The receiving multi-laneoptical transceiver can instantiate an optical protocol alarm based onthe detection of the optical interruption event so as to relay to anetwork management system that the optical interruption event (e.g., aloss of wavelength due to a faulty portion of fiber optics, amalfunction with a sending optical transmitter, or other detectedoptical malfunction) has occurred corresponding to at least one opticallane within the multi-lane path. The receiving multi-lane opticaltransceiver can generate an optical protocol message that is configuredto instruct the sending multi-lane optical transceiver to alter how datais optically transmitted to the receiving network element through one ormore transmission actions. For example, the optical protocol message canbe configured to include an optical transmission command that, in someembodiments, can instruct the sending multi-lane optical transceiver toroute all segments of a data package through the plurality of opticallanes that do not correspond with the optical interruption event. Insome embodiments, the transmission actions also can include instructingthe multi-lane optical transceiver to maintain power to the opticaltransmitter corresponding to the optical lane which experienced theoptical interruption event but not transmit data from the data packagealong the optical lane corresponding to the optical interruption event.Although power can be maintained, the data may not be routed through theoptical transceiver and the optical lane that is associated with theoptical interruption event until the optical interruption event is nolonger detected. In some embodiments, the transmission actions caninclude throttling bandwidth of the multi-lane optical path to below abandwidth minimum threshold, such as a bandwidth originally defined byan original equipment manufacturer, a network policy definition, orother specification. In some embodiments, the transmission actions caninclude invoking an internal bypass route so that instead of sending allsegments of current and/or subsequent data packages along the multi-laneoptical path having the faulty optical lane, at least some or all of thesegments of the current or subsequent data package may be routed along asecond multi-lane optical path corresponding to another multi-pathoptical transceiver in communication with the receiving network element,thereby allowing the receiving network element to reassemble the datausing one or more multi-lane optical paths and transmit the reassembleddata package to a point of destination, such as a user equipment. Insome embodiments, the transmission actions can include activation of areserve optical transmitter so as to restore the multi-lane optical paththat was in use prior to the detection of the optical interruptionevent. These and other aspects of the concepts and technologiesdisclosed herein will be illustrated and described in more detail below.

While some of the subject matter described herein may occasionally bepresented in the general context of program modules that execute inconjunction with the execution of an operating system and applicationprograms on a computer system, those skilled in the art will recognizethat other implementations may be performed in combination with othertypes of program modules. Generally, program modules include routines,programs, components, data structures, and other types of structuresthat perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract datatypes in response to execution on a processor. Moreover, those skilledin the art will appreciate that the subject matter described herein maybe practiced with other computer system configurations, includinghand-held devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based orprogrammable consumer electronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers,and other particularized, non-generic machines.

Referring now to FIG. 1, aspects of an operating environment 100 forimplementing various embodiments of the concepts and technologiesdisclosed herein for enabling multi-lane optical transport networkrecovery will be described, according to an illustrative embodiment. Theoperating environment 100 shown in FIG. 1 includes a user equipment 104associated with a user 102, a user equipment 194 associated with a user195, and a communications network (“network”) 110 that cancommunicatively couple the user equipment 104 with the user equipment194. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, the network 110 caninclude a network access point 112, a network element 114, a networkelement 150, a multi-lane optical path (“MLOP”) 1, a MLOP 2, a networkmanagement system 188, an optical network terminal 192, and an accesspoint 193.

In various embodiments, the network 110 can be operated, in whole or inpart, by a communications service provider that enables a communicationservice to be offered to customers, such as one or more of the user 102and/or the user 195, via network access from the customer's equipment,such as the user equipment 104 and the user equipment 194, respectively.The communication of data between one or more of the user equipment 104and/or the user equipment 194, and amongst network elements of thenetwork 110, may be referred to as network traffic. For example, in anembodiment, the user 102 may want to communicate with the user 195 byusing the user equipment 104 to send a data package 106 to the userequipment 194 via the network 110. In various embodiments, the network110 can include all or a portion of a public switched telephone network,a public data network, a private data network, a local area network, awide area network, a metropolitan area network, a local, regional,and/or global communication or computer network, an optical transportnetwork, an enterprise network, a wireline, any combination thereof, orthe like. The network 110 can include an optical transport network thatcan, in some embodiments, provide high-speed bandwidth (e.g., at least400 Gb/s or at least 1 Tb/s through the network 110) while also reducingdata loss over long distances when compared to conventional wiredelectrical networks. It is understood that the network 110 can supportcommunications service via optical and non-optical transport components.Further discussion of embodiments of the network 110 is provided withreference to FIG. 3. Similarly, further discussion of an embodiment of aconfiguration for the user equipment 104 and the user equipment 194 areprovided with reference to FIG. 5. It is understood that the examplesprovided are for illustration purposes only, and therefore should not beconstrued as limiting in any way.

In various embodiments, the data package 106 can be transmitted via awired and/or wireless communication link to, within, and/or from thenetwork 110. The data package 106 can be sent from an application and/oroperating system of the user equipment 104. In some embodiments, thedata package 106 can be configured to support a communication service,such as a WiFi call, a video call, a texting session, a session of videocontent, an email, or any other data structure used in datatransmission. The data package 106 can be routed from the user equipment104 to the network access point 112. In some embodiments, the networkaccess point 112 may serve as a provider edge device that enablesvarious communication devices, such as the user equipment 104, to accessthe network 110. In some embodiments, the user equipment 104 may alsosend a subsequent data package 108, which may be configuredsubstantially similar to the data package 106, but was sent from theuser equipment 104 at a time after the data package 106 was sent tonetwork element 114 within the network 110 via the network access point112.

The network access point 112 can be communicatively coupled to thenetwork element 114. Although only two access points are shown (e.g.,the network access point 112 and the access point 193), the network 110can support multiple access points configured the same as or similar tothe network access points 112, 193. The network access points 112, 193can provide wired and/or wireless communicative coupling and caninclude, but should not be limited to, one or more of a base transceiverstation, a wireless router, a femtocell, an eNode B, a NodeB, a gNodeB(i.e., an access point that incorporates new radio access technology,such as LTE Advanced and other 5G technology), a multi-standard metrocell node and/or other network nodes or combinations thereof that arecapable of providing communication to and/or from the network 110. Asillustrated in FIG. 1, the access point 193 is configured in the form ofa wireless router that is communicatively coupled to the optical networkterminal 192, however it is understood that this may not be the case inall embodiments. The optical network terminal 192 can provide circuitrythat enables a transition from fiber optical communication to electricalcommunication so that the access point 193 is able to process and relaycommunications to the user equipment 194, such as any of the datapackage 106, the subsequent data package 108, and/or a reassembled datapackage 111. In some embodiments, the network access points 112, 193and/or the optical network terminal 192 may be referred to as provideredge devices and may be included as a part of a communication serviceprovided to one or more users. It is understood that the examplesprovided are for illustration purposes only, and therefore should not beconstrued as limiting in any way.

The network 110 can include a plurality of network elements that caninclude any system, apparatus, and/or networking device (whether virtualor physical) that may be configured to route and handle traffic through,to, and/or from the network 110. Examples of network elements, such asthe network element 114 and the network element 150, can include, butshould not be limited to, routers, switches, server hubs, opticaladd-drop multiplexers, gateways, or other devices that can facilitatecommunication services for the network 110. In the embodimentillustrated in FIG. 1, the network element 114 and the network element150 may provide a host computer system or other compute, store, and/ornetworking resources that can support the communicative functionsdescribed herein. Although only two network elements are illustrated inFIG. 1, it is understood that more than two network elements may beincluded within the network, according to various embodiments. Invarious embodiments, the network element 114 and the network element 150can convert electrical signals received from a non-optical component ofthe network 110, into optical signals, and similarly can convert opticalsignals into electrical signals.

The network element 114 can be communicatively coupled to the networkelement 150 via one or more multi-lane optical paths, such as the MLOP 1and the MLOP 2. A multi-lane optical path, such as the MLOP 1 and theMLOP 2, includes a communication link that has a plurality of opticallanes so as to establish one or more communication channels between peerdevices (e.g., between two multi-lane optical transceivers) through theuse of one or more optical fibers and/or optical connections. Each ofthe MLOP 1 and the MLOP 2 can include a plurality of optical lanes. Anoptical lane is at least a portion of an optical fiber strand and/oroptical connection that provides a channel of communicationcorresponding to a specific wavelength for communicative coupling. Thewavelength corresponding to each optical lane can be measured innanometers (“nm”). In some embodiments, the wavelength can correspondwith at least one wavelength within an “0-Band” (i.e., 1260 nm-1360 nm),an “E-Band” (i.e., 1360 nm-1460 nm), “S-Band” (i.e., 1460 nm-1530 nm), a“C-Band” (i.e., 1530 nm-1565 nm), or an “L-Band” (i.e., 1565 nm-1625nm). In some embodiments, wavelengths corresponding to each optical lanecan be interspaced in a defined channel spacing distance (e.g., between20 nm spacing, 0.4 nm spacing, 0.8 nm, or other configuration). In someembodiments, multiple optical lanes (with each optical lanecorresponding to a particular wavelength) can be combined into at leastone multi-lane optical path via wavelength division multiplexing and/ordense wavelength division multiplexing. In some embodiments, the opticallane can be unidirectional and/or bidirectional, where unidirectionalenables transmission of data only in one direction (i.e., transmit orreceive) between peer devices, and bidirectional enables transmission ofdata in two directions (i.e., transmit and receive) between peerdevices.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the MLOP 1 can include a portion 1A and aportion 1B. In some embodiments, the portion 1A and the portion 1B ofthe MLOP 1 may correspond with distinct optical lanes used fortransmission in each direction so as to provide bidirectionalcommunication. In other embodiments, the portion 1A and the portion 1Bof the MLOP 1 may correspond with the same optical lanes used fortransmission in each direction, where the transmissions on the sameoptical lanes occur at separate times so as not to interfere with eachother. It is understood that the MLOP 1 and the MLOP 2 may be providedvia one or more optical fiber strands and one or more optical connectorinterfaces. Examples of optical fiber strands that can be used toprovide at least a portion of the MLOP 1 and/or the MLOP 2 can include,but should not be limited to, a single-mode optical fiber, an enhancedlarge effective area optical fiber, a reduced slope optical fiber, amultimode optical fiber, or other optical fiber known to one of ordinaryskill.

In an embodiment, the MLOP 1 includes a plurality of optical lanes182A-182N. For clarity, the plurality of optical lanes 182A-182Ncorresponds with the portion 1A of the MLOP 1, where 182N correspondswith an “N” number of optical lanes that can vary dependent on theparticular configuration of the transmitting and receiving multi-laneoptical transceivers. In various embodiments, each of the optical lanes182A-182N corresponds with one or more specific, distinct wavelength(s).It is understood that increasing the number of optical lanes within theMLOP 1 and/or the MLOP 2 can, in some embodiments, increase thebandwidth (such as measured in Gb/s) of the multi-lane optical path.When an optical lane is active (i.e., providing data transmission alongthe optical lane that is used by the receiving multi-lane opticaltransceiver), then each optical lane can provide or otherwise beassociated with a lane bandwidth (measured in Gb/s), and the cumulativenumber of optical lanes that are active can provide an aggregated databandwidth, referred to as a “MLOP bandwidth”. For example, in anembodiment, if the MLOP 1 has four active optical lanes, with eachoptical lane having a lane bandwidth of 100 Gb/s, then the MLOP 1 wouldhave an MLOP bandwidth of 400 Gb/s (i.e., aggregation of four 100 Gb/slane bandwidths). In some embodiments, each optical lane may correspondwith a different lane bandwidth amount (e.g., some optical lanes having100 Gb/s while other optical lanes having 10 Gb/s). In some embodiments,optical lanes that experience and/or are associated with an opticalinterruption event may not have their lane bandwidth aggregated into thetotal MLOP bandwidth, thereby possibly decreasing the MLOP bandwidth ifanother optical lane is not brought online (i.e., activated and put intouse) so as to recover the missing lane bandwidth. It is understood thatthe examples provided are for illustration purposes only, and thereforeshould not be construed as limiting the scope of the concepts andtechnologies in any way.

In some embodiments, an MLOP may include a plurality of optical lanes,with at least one “reserve optical lane” which is an optical lane thatis held in reserve and not in use until activated via data transmissionby one of the multi-lane optical transceivers. As such, if one opticallane experiences or is otherwise associated with an optical interruptionevent—which will be explained in further detail below—then a reserveoptical lane may be activated so as to restore the MLOP bandwidth tofull capacity. For example, in an embodiment, if the MLOP 1 includedfour optical lanes 182A-182D and one reserve optical lane (e.g., theoptical lane 182N), then the reserve optical lane could be put into useif one of the four optical lanes 182A-182D experienced or otherwise isassociated with an optical interruption event. As discussed in furtherdetail below, each optical lane (e.g., any of the optical lanes182A-182N) can provide transport for an entire data package or a portionor segment of a data package. For example, in an embodiment, some and/orall of the data package 106 may be disassembled into a plurality of datapackage segments 106A-106D, where one or more of the data packagesegments 106A-106D can be sent along the optical lanes 182A-182D,respectively. It is understood that the examples provided are forillustration purposed only, and therefore should not be construed aslimiting in any way. It is understood that, in the claims, the phrases“optical lane(s),” “multi-lane optical path(s),” and variations thereofdo not include (and should not be construed to include) waves or signalsper se and/or communication media.

In various embodiments, each of the network element 114 and the networkelement 150 (and components included therein) may be considered a “peer”with each other due to a direct and/or indirect communicative couplingwithin the network 110 via one or more multi-lane optical paths. Forclarity, the use of the terms “first,” “second,” “third,” “fourth,” orany other numeral may be used for discussion purposes so as todistinguish between various components. It is understood that use ofthese terms such as “first,” “second,” “third,” “fourth,” or othernumerals discussed herein, should not be interpreted or construed toinfer, imply, or convey a priority, a hierarchy, a preference, alimitation, a collective amount, a status, an order, and/or any ofcharacteristic within or beyond the component being described. It isunderstood that reference to a numeral in the context of describing anitem of the present disclosure is for illustration purposes only, andtherefore should not be construed as limiting in any way. Forillustration purposes only, the network element 114 will be referred toas the “first network element 114” and the network element 150 can bereferred to as the “second network element 150.”

In some embodiments, a network element (e.g., the first network element114 and the second network element 150) can include a power supply, anetwork interface, and one or more multi-lane optical transceiver(“MLOT”). For example, the first network element 114 can include anetwork interface 116, a power supply 120, an MLOT 118, and an MLOT 146.In some embodiments, the first network element 114 may have one MLOT,two MLOTs, or more than two MLOTs. For clarity purposes, the MLOT 118can be referred to as a “first MLOT 118” and the MLOT 146 can bereferred to as a “second MLOT 146.” The examples and use of terms“first” and “second” are provided for illustration purposes only, andtherefore should not be construed as limiting in any way. Also, thesecond network element 150 can include a power supply 160, a networkinterface 152, an MLOT 154, and an MLOT 156. In some embodiments, thesecond network element 150 may have one MLOT, two MLOTs, or more thantwo MLOTs. For clarity purposes, the MLOT 156 can be referred to as the“third MLOT 156” and the MLOT 146 can be referred to as the “fourth MLOT154.” The examples and use of terms “third” and “fourth” are providedfor illustration purposed only so as to distinguish between the MLOTsillustrated in FIG. 1, and therefore should not be construed as limitingin any way.

In various embodiments, the power supply of a network element (e.g., thepower supply 120 of the first network element 114 and/or the powersupply 160 of the second network element 150) can provide a constantand/or variable power (e.g., measured in milliamps and/or volts) to anycomponent within the network element (e.g., any MLOT within the firstnetwork element 114 and/or the second network element 150). It isunderstood that a power supply (e.g., the power supply 120 and/or thepower supply 160) can provide different amounts of power, voltage,and/or amperage to components within the network element, such as toalter optical transmission to another network element by changing anamount of power sent to an optical transmitter of an MLOT. In someembodiments, each MLOT may have a power supply in addition to and/or inlieu of the power supply of the network element (e.g., the power supply120 of the first network element 114 and/or the power supply 160 of thesecond network element 150). For example, in an embodiment, each MLOTmay draw power from a power supply (e.g., the power supply 120 or 160),and in turn provide a voltage to components within the MLOT, which aredescribed in detail below.

A network interface (e.g., the network interface 116 and the networkinterface 152), can transfer data to and from a network element. In someembodiments, a network interface (e.g., the network interfaces 116, 152)can provide an electrical pin interface, an electrical couplerinterface, an optical coupling interface, or the like. For example, thenetwork interface 116 can communicatively couple the first networkelement 114 to other devices within the network 110, such as but notlimited to, the network access point 112 and the network managementsystem 188. Also, the network interface 152 can communicatively couplethe second network element 150 to other devices within the network 110,such as but not limited to, the optical network terminal 192 and thenetwork management system 188. The network interface 116 directs data toand/or from any MLOT within the first network element 114, such as thefirst MLOT 118 and/or the second MLOT 146. Similarly, the networkinterface 152 can direct data to and/or from any MLOT within the secondnetwork element 150, such as the third MLOT 156 and/or the fourth MLOT154. In various embodiments, the first MLOT 118 is communicativelycoupled to the third MLOT 156 via the MLOP 1, and the second MLOT 146 iscommunicatively coupled to the fourth MLOT 154 via the MLOP 2. In someembodiments, the first MLOT 118 may be referred to as a “peer” of thethird MLOT 156 (and vice-versa) based on the communicative coupling thatis provided via the MLOP 1. Similarly, in some embodiments, the secondMLOT 146 may be referred to as a “peer” of the fourth MLOT 154 (and viceversa) based on the communicative coupling that is provided via the MLOP2.

In various embodiments, an MLOT (e.g., any of the MLOTS 118, 146, 154,156) can be configured as a full duplex, photonic-integrated opticaltransceiver that provides a high-speed link (e.g., via one or more MLOP1 and/or 2) with an aggregated data rate (e.g., less than 40 Gb/s, 40Gb/s, 100 GB/s, 400 Gb/s, 1 Tb/s, any data rate in between the datarates listed, or more than 1 Tb/s) that can operate with full and/orpartial transmit functionality and full and/or partial receivefunctionality in one or more hosts devices (e.g., the network elements114, 150). In various embodiments, an MLOT can be configured to complywith one or more industry standards, such as but not limited to, anInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (“IEEE”) standard(e.g., an 802.3 standard), an International Telecommunication UnionTelecommunication standardization Sector (“ITU-T”) standard (e.g.,G.959.1), and/or other industry standards known to one of ordinary skillin the technology.

In various embodiments, an MLOT (e.g., any of the first MLOT 118, thesecond MLOT 146, the third MLOT 156, and the fourth MLOT 154) caninclude a controller, a transmission optical sub-assembly (“TOSA”), anda receiver optical sub-assembly (“ROSA”). For example, the first MLOT118 can include a controller 122, a TOSA 128, and a ROSA 138. Similarly,a third MLOT 156 can include a controller 158, a TOSA 162, and a ROSA170. The second MLOT 146 can be configured substantially similar to thatof the first MLOT 118. The fourth MLOT 154 can be configuredsubstantially similar to that of the third MLOT 156. As such, it isunderstood that instances of any and/or all of the components within thefirst MLOT 118 and/or the second MLOT 146 that are shown and describedwith respect to FIG. 1 can be included within the third MLOT 156 and/orthe fourth MLOT 154. It is understood that the examples described arefor illustration purposes only, and should not be construed as limitingin any way.

A controller (e.g., the controller 122 of the first MLOT 118 and thecontroller 158 of the third MLOT 156) can include a processor and amemory that stores instructions to enable performance of one or moreoperations described herein. In various embodiments, the processor ofthe controllers 122, 158 can include one or more of a central processingunit, a graphics processing unit, a system-on-chip circuit, acombination thereof, and/or other compute resources that can beconfigured upon execution to perform operations discussed herein. Amemory of the controllers 122, 158 can provide temporary and/orpermanent storage operations, and can include volatile and/ornon-volatile memory that can be implemented in any method of technologyfor storage of information, such as computer readable instructions, datastructures, program modules, or other data disclosed herein. Each MLOTcan include one or more TOSA and one or more ROSA that can provide atransmit path and a receive path. The controllers 122, 158 can providefunctionality to make decisions as to how data should be handled by eachTOSA and ROSA so as to determine whether a transmit path and/or areceive path should be used to convey or route data to and/or from thenetwork elements 114, 150. For example, the first network element 114may, upon receiving the data package 106 from the network access point112, direct the data package 106 to the first MLOT 118 for transmissionto the second network element 150. The controller 122 can pass the datapackage 106 to a component within the TOSA 128.

In some embodiments, a TOSA (e.g., the TOSA 128 and/or the TOSA 162) caninclude an optical distributor, a plurality of optical transmitters, anda multiplexer. For example, the TOSA 128 can include an opticaldistributor 134 that can be communicatively coupled to a plurality ofoptical transmitters 130A-130N. Each of the optical transmitters130A-130N can be communicatively coupled with a multiplexer 132.Similarly, the TOSA 162 can include an optical distributor 166 that iscommunicatively coupled to a plurality of optical transmitters164A-164N, and each of the optical transmitters 164A-164N can becommunicatively coupled to a multiplexer 168. In some embodiments, anoptical distributor (e.g., the optical distributors 134, 166) caninclude a continuous time linear equalizer that can collect andsynchronize data that is conveyed electrically from a controller (e.g.,the controllers 122, 158). In some embodiments, the optical distributors134, 166 can segment a data package into a plurality of data packagesegments (e.g., the data package 106 being segmented into the pluralityof data package segments 106A-106D). In some embodiments, the opticaldistributors 134, 166 can act upon the instruction of the controller towhich they are associated, such as the controllers 122, 158. Thecontroller (e.g., one of the controllers 122, 158) can indicate whichoptical transmitter(s) (e.g., any of the plurality of opticaltransmitters 130A-130N and/or the plurality of optical transmitters164A-164N) is active and/or should be active and used to opticallytransmit data to a peer network element. The controllers 122, 158 alsocan indicate which specific wavelength should correspond with each ofthe optical transmitters that optically transmit data alongcorresponding optical lanes. In some embodiments, the controllers 122,158 can indicate how many data segments should be created out of areceived data package (e.g., the data package 106 and/or the subsequentdata package 108), and which data segments should be distributed to oneor more optical transmitters. In some embodiments, the controllers 122,158 can uniformly and/or non-uniformly distribute data segments of adata package to one or more optical transmitters for transmission alongan MLOP, such as any of the MLOP 1 and/or the MLOP 2. In someembodiments, the controllers 122, 158 can be instructed (e.g., by anoptical protocol message) to non-uniformly distribute data segments byutilizing less than all of the optical lanes within an MLOP, therebythrottling the bandwidth while maintaining communicative coupling via anMLOP despite the occurrence of one or more optical interruption events,which will be described in further detail below. The opticaldistributors 134, 166 can receive an indication from the controllers122, 158 as to which optical transmitters should be used, and can conveyone or more data package segments (e.g., any of the data packagesegments 106A-106D) to one or more optical transmitter (e.g., any of theplurality of optical transmitters 130A-130N and/or the plurality ofoptical transmitters 164A-164N). In some embodiments, the opticaldistributors 134, 166 can include a clock-data recovery chip orcircuitry that syncs and times the relay of data package segments.

An optical transmitter (e.g., any of the plurality of opticaltransmitters 130A-130N and/or the plurality of optical transmitters164A-164N) can include an optical device driver, such as but not limitedto, one or more of a laser device driver and/or a light emitting diodedevice driver. Each optical transmitter can generate and provide anoptical signal corresponding to a specific wavelength via one or moreoptical device drivers that drives a laser and/or light emitting diodeat a specific wavelength. Because each optical transmitter cancorrespond with an optical lane of an MLOP, each optical lane isassociated with the specific wavelength that is provided by the opticaltransmitter that transmits data along the optical lane. In someembodiments, the controllers 122, 158 can instruct one or more of theoptical transmitters (e.g., any of the plurality of optical transmitters130A-130N and/or the plurality of optical transmitters 164A-164N) tochange and/or alter the specific wavelength that is being used to conveydata. For example, in an embodiment, the optical transmitters 130A-130Dmay each generate an optical signal at a different wavelength. In someembodiments, the optical transmitter 130N may be a reserve opticaltransmitter that is not active and used unless called upon by thecontroller 122. In an embodiment where the optical transmitter 130A nolonger functions properly (e.g., being associated with an opticalinterruption event), then the controller 122 can activate the reserveoptical transmitter (e.g., the optical transmitter 130N in this example)by providing a voltage to the reserve optical transmitter andinstructing the reserve optical transmitter to assume the specificwavelength that formerly was attributed to the optical transmitter 130Athat is currently not functioning properly. It is understood that theexamples provided are for illustration purposes only, and thereforeshould not be construed as limiting in any way.

In various embodiments, data can be transmitted using optical signalsthat are generated by one or more optical transmitters (e.g., any of theplurality of optical transmitters 130A-130N and/or the plurality opticaltransmitters 164A-164N) and multiplexed together optically by amultiplexor (e.g., the multiplexer 132 and/or the multiplexer 168) intoa single and/or multiple MLOP (e.g., the MLOP 1 and/or the MLOP 2)through a connector (e.g., an industry standard optical connector). Inthe embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, the portion 1A of the MLOP 1 canfacilitate optical transmission from the TOSA 128 of the first MLOT 118within the first network element 114 to the ROSA 170 of the third MLOT156 within the second network element 150. The portion 1B of the MLOP 1can facilitate optical transmission from the TOSA 162 of the third MLOT156 within the second network element 150 to the ROSA 138 of the firstMLOT 118 within the first network element 114. Similarly, the MLOP 2 canfacilitate optical transmission between the second MLOT 146 and thefourth MLOT 154.

In some embodiments, a ROSA (e.g., the ROSA 138 of the first MLOT 118and the ROSA 170 of the third MLOT 156) can be configured to receiveoptical transmissions via an MLOP (e.g., the MLOP 1 and/or the MLOP 2).A ROSA can include a demultiplexer (e.g., a demultiplexer 176 of theROSA 170 and a demultiplexer 144 of the ROSA 138), a plurality ofoptical receivers (e.g., a plurality of optical receivers 172A-172N ofthe ROSA 170 and a plurality of optical receivers 140A-140N of the ROSA138), and a receiving amplifier (e.g., a receiver amplifier 174 of theROSA 170 and the receiver amplifier 142 of the ROSA 138). Thedemultiplexers can receive the multiplexed optical transmissions fromthe MLOP (e.g., demultiplexer 176 receiving optical transmissions viathe portion 1A and the demultiplexer 144 receiving optical transmissionvia the portion 1B) and can optically separate the incomingtransmissions into separate wavelengths corresponding to each of theoptical lanes within the MLOP. The optical transmissions from eachoptical lane can be passed along to the optical receivers (e.g., theplurality of optical receivers 172A-174 and the plurality of opticalreceivers 140A-140N). The optical receivers can include a photodetectorand/or a photonic diode that can convert the received opticaltransmissions from each optical lane into electrical transmissions thatare routed to the receiver amplifier (e.g., the receiver amplifiers 174,142). The receiver amplifiers 174, 142 can include a transimpedanceamplifier, a limiting amplifier, and/or a clock and data recovery chipthat can recover the output from the optical receivers, sync, retime,and reshape the data transmissions corresponding to each optical lane sothat the data package segments can be sent to the controller on the MLOTfor analysis and operations.

In some embodiments, a controller (e.g., the controllers 122, 158) canreassemble the data package segments (e.g., the data package segments106A-106D) back into the data package 106 and use the network interface(e.g., the network interfaces 116, 152) to relay the data package 106onto a next hop of the network 110 (e.g., the optical network terminal192). In various embodiments, the controller 122 can route the datapackage 106 to the first MLOT 118, which in turn can segment the datapackage 106 into the data package segments 106A-106D that are sent viathe optical lanes 182A-182D which are multiplexed together in the MLOP1. The third MLOT 156 of the second network element 150 can recover andseparate the data transmission corresponding to each of the opticallanes 182A-182D via the ROSA 170. The controller 158 can analyze thereceived transmissions to determine whether an optical interruptionevent has occurred. An optical interruption event (e.g., the opticalinterruption event 180) is a detected anomaly, irregularity, and/orfailure of optical transmission at a specific wavelength along anoptical lane of an MLOP so as to cause one or more of data loss,connectivity loss, failure to send and/or receive an opticaltransmission along the optical lane, and/or the inability of acontroller to reassemble a data package from the data segments that arereceived over one or more optical lanes of an MLOP. In some embodiments,an optical interruption event may occur corresponding to one or morelanes of the MLOP that was used. This can cause conventional systems toconsider the entire MLOP in use to be “lost” (i.e., cease use of alloptical lanes irrespective of their functionality) and the conventionalsystems would no longer allow communicative connectivity along anyoptical lane of the MLOP until the optical interruption event isremedied. However, embodiments of the present disclosure can recoverfrom optical interruption events by maintaining connectivity of the MLOPdespite occurrence of an optical interruption event.

For example, in various embodiments, the controller 158 may detect thatthe optical lanes 182A-182D are supposed to be in use and thereforedetermine whether a wavelength corresponding to one of the optical lanesis detected. In an embodiment, an optical interruption event, such asthe optical interruption event 180, may occur and the controller 158 ofthe third MLOT 156 that is receiving data from the first MLOT 118 maydetect that the optical interruption event 180 is associated with theoptical lane 182A of the MLOP 1. The controller 158 also may detect anddetermine that the optical interruption event 180 is associated onlywith the optical lane 182A of the MLOP 1, and thus a plurality ofoptical lanes of the MLOP 1 do not correspond with the opticalinterruption event 180, such as the optical lanes 182B-182N shown in theportion 1A of the MLOP 1. Each of the optical lanes 182B-182N can havedifferent wavelengths that remain functional and are not associated withthe optical interruption event 180 which was associated with the opticallane 182A in this example. In some embodiments, the controllers 122, 158can store a transmission configuration 124, 157 that can define whichoptical transmitters and/or optical receivers should be in use and thewavelength that should be provided by a peer optical transmittercorresponding with each optical lane of an MLOP. For example, each ofthe transmission configurations 124, 157 can indicate that the opticallanes 182A-182D should be in use within the MLOP 1 and that the opticaltransmitters 130A-130D should provide optical data transmissionsassociated with different specific wavelengths for each of the opticallanes 182A-182D. The transmission configurations 124, 157 can indicatewhich wavelength should correspond with each optical lane in use for anMLOP. The controller 158 can monitor incoming data transmissions anddetermine whether an optical interruption event (e.g., the opticalinterruption event 180) has occurred corresponding to the optical lane(e.g., one or more of the optical lanes 182A-182N) within the MLOP 1that was supposed to be used to convey one or more of the data packagesegment 106A-106D.

In an embodiment, an example of the optical interruption event 180 caninclude the optical transmitter 130A failing to generate an opticaltransmission along the optical lane 182A and/or providing a distortedtransmission that uses an incorrect wavelength (i.e., a wavelength thatwas not designated for use by the optical transmitter 130A according tothe transmission configuration 124). The controller 158 can determinethat a wavelength is not detected for the optical lane 182A from theMLOP 1, thereby indicating that an optical interruption event hasoccurred. In some embodiments, the occurrence of the opticalinterruption event 180 can cause a data package segment (e.g., the datapackage segment 106A) to be absent or corrupted, thereby preventingreassembly of the data package 106. It is understood that the examplesprovided are for illustration purposes only, and therefore should not beconstrued as limiting in any way.

In another embodiment, an example of the optical interruption event 180can include the optical transmitter 130 and/or the optical lane 182Amalfunctioning such that optical transmission is provided along theoptical lane 182A on an intermittent basis, thereby causing datatransmission to be interrupted for at least a time period, such as aninterruption time period. The interruption time period 191 can define aperiod of time (e.g., measured in milliseconds and/or seconds) thatelapses without an optical receiver receiving data transmission along anoptical lane when the data transmission should have been received. Insome embodiments, the optical receiver may receive an opticaltransmission before and/or after the interruption time period 191,however based on the optical receiver failing to receive data during theinterruption time period 191, the controller 158 can determine that anoptical interruption event 180 has occurred. In some embodiments, theoptical interruption event 180 can occur due to a faulty laser driver ofthe optical transmitter of the peer MLOT (e.g., the optical transmitter130 of the first MLOT 118), a defective portion of an MLOP (e.g., aportion of fiber optic strand that is associated with the optical lane182A), a combination thereof, or any other event that may causeinterruption to the transmission and/or reception of data betweennetwork elements. In some embodiments, the interruption time period 191can be stored as a value in the memory an MLOT and/or the memory of thenetwork management system 188. It is understood that the examplesprovided are for illustration purposes only, and therefore should not beconstrued as limiting in any way.

In some embodiments, the occurrence of the optical interruption event180 can trigger the controller 158 to instantiate an optical protocolalarm, such as the optical protocol alarm 181. The optical protocolalarm 181 includes an alarm and/or alert that is generated based ondetection of one or more optical interruption events corresponding withat least one optical lane. In some embodiments, the optical protocolalarm 181 can conform to an industry protocol, such as a simple networkmanagement protocol. The optical protocol alarm 181 can include adescription of the optical interruption event 180 and identifyinformation corresponding to the optical interruption event 180, such asan identifier of the MLOT that detected the optical interruption event180 (e.g., identifier of the third MLOT 156), the optical lane andwavelength of the MLOP associated with the optical interruption event(e.g., identification of the optical lane 182A and correspondingwavelength), the sending peer MLOT and/or peer optical transmitter thatcorresponds with the optical interruption event (e.g., the first MLOT118 and/or the optical transmitter 130A corresponding to the opticallane 182A that experienced the optical interruption event 180), a timeand/or date that the optical interruption event 180 occurred, an amountof bandwidth provided by the optical lane that experienced the opticalinterruption event 180 (e.g., an indication that the optical lane 182Aprovided 100 Gb/s of bandwidth prior to occurrence of the opticalinterruption event 180), an indication of whether an optical protocolmessage was generated in response to the optical interruption event 180,a combination thereof, or the like. In an embodiment, the third MLOT 156can provide the optical protocol alarm 181 to a network ticketapplication 189 executing on the network management system 188. In someembodiments, the network management system 188 can generate a networkticket that informs other systems and/or administrators that the sendingMLOT (e.g., the first MLOT 118) may be in need of maintenance.

In various embodiments, the controller 158 can generate an opticalprotocol message 184 based on the optical protocol alarm 181. Theoptical protocol message 184 can be provided to a peer MLOT so as toinstruct the peer MLOT to alter optical transmission of data along oneor more MLOP. For example, in an embodiment, the optical protocolmessage 184 can be sent from the TOSA 162 of the third MLOT 156 of thesecond network element 150 to the ROSA 138 of the first MLOT 118 (whichin this example would be considered to be the peer MLOT of the thirdMLOT 156) via the portion 1B of the MLOP 1. The ROSA 138 can pass theoptical protocol message 184 to the controller 122 that, once received,can alter handling and/or optical transmission along the MLOP 1 whichexperienced the optical interruption event 180.

In an embodiment, the optical protocol message 184 can include anoptical transmission command 185 that alters the transmissionconfiguration 124 implemented by the first MLOT 118 (which in thisexample can be considered the peer MLOT to the third MLOT 156). Forexample, the transmission configuration 124 may initially indicate(prior to the data package 106 being sent and the optical interruptionevent 180 being detected) that the optical transmitters 130A-130D shouldbe used and that the optical transmitter 130N should be a reserveoptical transmitter that is held in a non-active state (i.e., notproviding power to the optical transmitter while not in use). In someembodiments, the optical transmission command 185 can instruct the firstMLOT 118 to route power to the reserve optical transmitter (in thisexample the optical transmitter 130N) so as to provide opticaltransmission at a specific wavelength. In some embodiments, the opticaltransmission command 185 can identify the specific wavelength that wasassociated with the optical lane that experienced and/or was associatedwith the optical interruption event 180 (e.g., the optical lane 182A),where the specific wavelength was supposed to be detected by the thirdMLOT 156. The optical protocol message 184 can instruct the controller122 to configure the reserve optical transmitter (e.g., the opticaltransmitter 130N) to provide optical transmission along the optical lane182N using the specific wavelength that previously was designated to theoptical lane that was associated with the optical interruption event 180(e.g., the optical lane 182A). By this, in some embodiments, the thirdMLOT 156 can instruct the first MLOT 118 to restore the amount ofbandwidth that was provided by the MLOP 1 prior to the opticalinterruption event 180.

In some embodiments, the optical protocol message 184 can instruct thefirst MLOT 118 to alter optical transmission by routing data (e.g., thesubsequent data package 108) through the plurality of optical lanes thatdo not correspond with the optical interruption event 180, such as theoptical lanes 182B-182D. In an embodiment, if the optical protocolmessage 184 commands the first MLOT 118 to activate a reserve opticaltransmitter (e.g., the optical transmitter 130N), then the first MLOT118 can also utilize the optical lane 182N to provide opticaltransmission that conveys at least a portion of data (e.g., one or moresegments of the subsequent data package 108) to the third MLOT 156. Insome embodiments, the optical protocol message 184 can instruct thefirst MLOT 118 to alter optical transmission by routing data through oneor more of the plurality of optical lanes 182B-182N that do notcorrespond with the optical interruption event 180 while alsoinstructing the controller 122 to maintain power that is sent to theoptical transmitter 130A that is associated with the optical lane 182Athat corresponds with the optical interruption event 180. By maintainingpower to the optical transmitter 130A that is associated with theoptical interruption event 180, yet not routing data through the opticallane 182A that is used by the optical transmitter 130A, the first MLOT118 can monitor whether the optical transmitter 130A is producing anoptical signal that allows for optical transmission and allows the thirdMLOT 156 to determine whether the optical interruption event 180 isoccurring due to the optical transmitter 130A or whether the opticalinterruption event 180 corresponds with the optical lane of the MLOP 1(e.g., due to a faulty portion of the MLOP 1).

In some embodiments, the optical protocol message 184 can instruct thefirst MLOT 118 to alter optical transmission by throttling bandwidth ofthe MLOP 1 to below a bandwidth minimum threshold 190. The bandwidthminimum threshold 190 can correspond with an amount of bandwidthoriginally defined by an original equipment manufacturer, a networkpolicy definition, or other specification, and assigned to the MLOP 1based on the minimum number of optical lanes that are in use andcollectively provide the bandwidth when an optical interruption eventhas not occurred. For example, in some embodiments, the bandwidthminimum threshold 190 can be a maximum amount of bandwidth that can beattained when all optical transmitters are in use to provide datatransmission along an MLOP (e.g., the MLOP 1). Stated differently, insome embodiments, the bandwidth minimum threshold 190 may correspondwith a full one hundred percent bandwidth capability of the MLOP when nooptical interruption events are detected. In conventional system, whenan optical interruption event occurs, less than all of the optical lanesare capable of being utilized, and thus conventional systems discontinueuse of the entire MLOP (i.e., conventional systems stop the use of alloptical lanes) because the current bandwidth has fallen below thebandwidth minimum threshold 190 for that MLOP. However, embodiments ofthe present disclosure enable the third MLOT 156 to instruct the firstMLOT 118 to throttle bandwidth of the MLOP 1 to below the bandwidthminimum threshold 190 while maintaining connection along the MLOP. Insome embodiments, the bandwidth minimum threshold 190 can be stored as avalue within the network management system 188. It is understood thatthe examples provided are for illustration purposes only, and thereforeshould not be construed as limiting in any way.

In some embodiments, the optical protocol message 184 can instruct thefirst MLOT 118 to alter distribution of data package segments (e.g.,from the subsequent data package 108) such that data package segmentsthat would have been sent to optical transmitter 130A are instead sentto any one of the other optical transmitters that have optical laneswhich are not associated with the optical interruption event (e.g., anyof the optical transmitters 130B-130N corresponding with optical lanes182B-182N). In some embodiments, the optical protocol message 184 canalter optical transmission by instructing the controller 122 to ceaseproviding power to the optical transmitter 130A, thereby shutting downthe optical lane 182A until the optical interruption event 180 isremedied. It is understood that the examples provided are forillustration purposes only, and therefore should not be construed aslimiting in any way.

In some embodiments, data packages can include a network latencyindicator, such as the data package 106 including a network latencyindicator 107 and the subsequent data package 108 including the networklatency indicator 109. The network latency indicators 107, 109 canindicate an amount of time attributed to network latency (e.g., measuredin milliseconds or seconds) that the data package 106 is allowed toincur while being routed between hops (e.g., between the first networkelement 114 and the second network element 150). In some embodiments, acontroller of an MLOT can store a latency mapping, such as the firstMLOT 118 storing a latency mapping 126 and the third MLOT 156 storing alatency mapping 159. The latency mappings 126, 159 can indicate anamount of latency (e.g., measured in milliseconds or seconds) that wouldbe incurred if the MLOP 1 is used to transmit and/or receive databetween the first MLOT 118 and the third MLOT 156. The latency mappings126, 159 can vary based on the amount of bandwidth that the MLOP 1 iscapable of providing given the number of optical lanes that are in useand/or capable of being put in active use.

For example, when the controller 122 receives the data package 106 priorto detection of the optical interruption event 180 by the third MLOT156, the controller 122 can compare the network latency indicator 107 ofthe data package 106 with the latency mapping 126. If the latency timeindicated by the latency mapping 126 is less than the time indicated bythe network latency indicator 107, then the controller 122 can route theentire data package 106 to the TOSA 128 for optical transmission alongthe MLOP 1. However, in an embodiment where the third MLOT 156 detectsthat the optical interruption event 180 has occurred, the controller 158can configure the optical protocol message 184 to update the latencymappings 126, 159 such that when the subsequent data package 108 arrivesto the first network element 114, the controller 122 can identifywhether the current latency of the MLOP 1 conforms to the requirementsof the subsequent data package 108. The latency mappings 126, 159 caninclude updated times that correspond with a decreased, altered, orotherwise throttled amount of bandwidth that is available due to theMLOP 1 having a decreased amount of optical lanes available fortransmission. For example, the controller 122 can analyze and comparethe network latency indicator 109 of the subsequent data package 108 anddetermine whether an updated time within the latency mapping 126 is lessthan the network latency indicator 109. If the updated time within thelatency mapping 126 is less than the network latency indicator 109, thenthe controller 122 can provide the subsequent data package 108 to theTOSA 128 for transmission to the third MLOT 156 along the MLOP 1 that iscurrent utilizing the optical lanes 182B-182N (or any number thereof)that are not associated with the optical interruption event 180.

In an embodiment, the controller 122 can analyze and compare the networklatency indicator 109 of the subsequent data package 108 and determinethat the updated time within the latency mapping 126 is not less thanthe network latency indicator 109. When the updated time within thelatency mapping 126 is not less than the network latency indicator 109,the controller 122 can route some and/or all data segments of thesubsequent data package 108 to another MLOT that can satisfy the latencyrequirements due to the other MLOT using an MLOP with higher bandwidththan the MLOP 1. For example, the first network element 114 can beconfigured to include an internal bypass route 136 that communicativelycouples the first MLOT 118 to the second MLOT 146. The second MLOT 146can have a controller with a latency mapping (not shown) which indicatesthat the MLOP 2 has a latency that is less than the network latencyindicator 109, and thus is capable of delivering some and/or all of thesubsequent data package 108 to the second network element 150. In anembodiment, the controller 122 can create a bypass message 186 that caninclude only a portion (e.g., less than all of the data segments) of thesubsequent data package 108 for routing to the second network element150 via the internal bypass route 136 and the MLOP 2, while theremaining portion (i.e., the remaining data segments) of the subsequentdata package 108 is routed to the second network element 150 via theMLOP 1. When a bypass message 186 is implemented, the fourth MLOT 154can relay the bypass message 186 to the third MLOT 156 via an internalbypass route 137 of the second network element 150. The controller 158of the third MLOT 156 can reassemble the subsequent data package 108 bycombining the portion of data segments of the subsequent data package108 sent in the bypass message 186 via the MLOP 2 with the remainingportion of data segments of the subsequent data package 108 sent via theMLOP 1. The third MLOT 156 can reassemble a data package using segmentsreceived from one or more of the MLOPs, such as the MLOP 1 and/or theMLOP 2, which may be referred to as a reassembled data package 111,however this may not be the case in all embodiments. It is understoodthat the examples are for illustration purposes only and should not beconstrued as limiting in any way

It is also understood that zero, one, or more than one instance of theuser 102, the user equipment 103, the data package 106, the subsequentdata package 108, the reassembled data package 111, the network 110, thenetwork access point 112, the first network element 114, the networkinterface 116, the first MLOT 118, the power supply 120, the controller122, the transmission configuration 124, the latency mapping 126, theTOSA 128, the plurality of optical transmitters 130A-130N, themultiplexer 132, the optical distributor 134, the internal bypass route136, the ROSA 138, the plurality of optical receivers 140A-140N, thereceiver amplifier 142, the demultiplexer 144, the second MLOT 146, theMLOP 1, the MLOP 2, the second network element 150, the networkinterface 152, the fourth MLOT 154, the third MLOT 156, the controller158, the transmission configuration 157, the latency mapping 159, thepower supply 160, the TOSA 162, the plurality of optical transmitters164A-164N, the optical distributor 166, the multiplexer 168, the ROSA170, the plurality of optical receivers 172A, the internal bypass route137, the receiver amplifier 174, the demultiplexer 176, the opticalinterruption event 180, the optical protocol alarm 181, the plurality ofoptical lanes 182A-182N, the optical protocol message 184, the opticaltransmission command 185, the bypass message 186, the network managementsystem 188, the network ticket application 189, the bandwidth minimumthreshold 190, the interruption time period 191, the optical networkterminal 192, the network access point 193, the user equipment 194, theuser 195, and instances of elements included therein, can be includedwithin the operating environment 100. It is understood that reference tothe letter “N” denotes one or more than one instances of a correspondingelement of the present disclosure. It is understood that the examplesare for illustration purposes only and should not be construed aslimiting in any way

Turning now to FIG. 2, aspects of a method 200 and a method 210 formulti-lane optical transport network recovery are provided herein,according to an illustrative embodiment. It should be understood thatthe operations of the method disclosed herein (e.g., the method 200 andthe method 210) are not necessarily presented in any particular orderand that performance of some or all of the operations in an alternativeorder(s) is possible and is contemplated. The operations have beenpresented in the demonstrated order for ease of description andillustration. Operations may be added, omitted, and/or performedsimultaneously, without departing from the scope of the concepts andtechnologies disclosed herein.

It also should be understood that the methods disclosed herein can beended at any time and need not be performed in its entirety. Some or alloperations of the methods, and/or substantially equivalent operations,can be performed by execution of computer-readable instructions includedon a computer storage media, as defined herein. The term“computer-readable instructions,” and variants thereof, as used herein,is used expansively to include routines, applications, applicationmodules, program modules, programs, components, data structures,algorithms, and the like. Computer-readable instructions can beimplemented on various system configurations including single-processoror multiprocessor systems, minicomputers, network elements, multi-laneoptical transceivers, routers, switches, mainframe computers, personalcomputers, hand-held computing devices, microprocessor-based,programmable consumer electronics, combinations thereof, and the like.

Thus, it should be appreciated that the logical operations describedherein are implemented (1) as a sequence of computer implemented acts orprogram modules running on a computing system and/or (2) asinterconnected machine logic circuits or circuit modules within thecomputing system. The implementation is a matter of choice dependent onthe performance and other requirements of the computing system.Accordingly, the logical operations described herein are referred tovariously as states, operations, structural devices, acts, or modules.These states, operations, structural devices, acts, and modules may beimplemented in software, in firmware, in special purpose digital logic,and any combination thereof. As used herein, the phrase “cause aprocessor to perform operations” and variants thereof is used to referto causing a processor of a computing system or device, such as thecontroller 122 of the first MLOT 118 and/or the controller 158 of thethird MLOT 156, to perform one or more operations and/or causing theprocessor to direct other components of the computing system or deviceto perform one or more of the operations.

For purposes of illustrating and describing the concepts of the presentdisclosure, the methods disclosed herein are described as beingperformed by the third MLOT 156 and/or the first MLOT 118 via executionof one or more software modules and/or executable instructions thatconfigure, for example, one or more processors of the controllers 158,122. It should be understood that additional and/or alternative devicesand/or network nodes can, in some embodiments, provide the functionalitydescribed herein via execution of one or more modules, applications,and/or other software including, but not limited to, the second MLOT146, the fourth MLOT 154, the first network element 114, the secondnetwork element 150, the network management system 188, or the like.Thus, the illustrated embodiments are illustrative, and should not beviewed as being limiting in any way.

The method 200 begins at operation 202. At operation 202, the third MLOT156 can detect an optical interruption event 180 that corresponds to theoptical lane 182A within the MLOP 1. In some embodiments, the opticalinterruption event 180 is detected by determining that a datatransmission via the optical lane 182A is interrupted for at least atime period, such as the interruption time period 191. In someembodiments, the third MLOT 156 can determine that the opticalinterruption event 180 precludes the third MLOT 156 from reassemblingthe data package 106 that was segmented and optically transmitted via aplurality of optical lanes (e.g., the optical lanes 182A-182N) of theMLOP 1. In some embodiments, the third MLOT 156 can detect the opticalinterruption event 180 by determining that a wavelength corresponding tothe optical lane 182A is not detected from the incoming transmission ofthe MLOP 1. In some embodiments, the MLOP 1 includes the optical lane182A that corresponds to the optical interruption event 180 and aplurality of optical lanes (e.g., the optical lanes 182B-182N) that donot correspond with the optical interruption event 180.

From operation 202, the method can proceed to operation 204, where thecontroller 158 of the third MLOT 156 can instantiate the opticalprotocol alarm 181 based on the optical interruption event 180 beingdetected. From operation 204, the method can proceed to operation 206,where the controller 158 of the third MLOT 156 can generate the opticalprotocol message 184 based on the optical protocol alarm 181. In someembodiments, the optical protocol message 184 can include the opticaltransmission command 185 that can alter the transmission configuration157 implemented by the peer multi-lane optical transceiver, such as thefirst MLOT 118. In some embodiments, the optical protocol message 184can instruct the first MLOT 118 to update the latency mapping 126 basedon the detection of the optical interruption event 180 that decreasedthe available bandwidth of the MLOP 1 by ceasing optical transmissionover the optical lane 182A that corresponds with the opticalinterruption event 180.

From operation 206, the method can proceed to operation 208, where thecontroller 158 of the third MLOT 156 can instruct a peer multi-laneoptical transceiver (e.g., the first MLOT 118) to alter opticaltransmission along the MLOP 1 based on the optical protocol message 184.In some embodiments, the third MLOT 156 configures the optical protocolmessage 184 to instruct the peer multi-lane optical transceiver (e.g.,the first MLOT 118) to alter optical transmission by commanding thecontroller 122 of the first MLOT 118 to route data (e.g., the subsequentdata package 108) through the plurality of optical lanes that do notcorrespond with the optical interruption event 180 (e.g., the opticallanes 182B-182N of the MLOP 1). In some embodiments, the third MLOT 156can configure the optical protocol message 184 to instruct the peermulti-lane optical transceiver (e.g., the first MLOT 118) to alteroptical transmission by commanding the controller 122 of the first MLOT118 to throttle bandwidth of the MLOP 1 to below the bandwidth minimumthreshold 190, such as by ceasing to provide power to the opticaltransmitter 130A corresponding to the optical lane 182A that isassociated with the optical interruption event 180.

From operation 208, the method 200 can proceed to operation 209, wherethe method 200 can end. In an embodiment, the method 200 can proceed tothe method 210, which is described in detail below. It should beunderstood that this example is illustrative and therefore should not beconstrued as being limiting in any way.

Turning now to FIG. 2B, a method 210 for multi-lane optical transportnetwork recovery is disclosed. The method 210 can begin at operation212, where each of the controllers 158, 122 can update the latencymappings 159, 126 within the third MLOT 156 and the first MLOT 118. Thelatency mappings 159, 126 can be updated based on the occurrence of theoptical interruption event 180 that can cause the bandwidth of the MLOP1 to decrease due to the optical lane 182A associated with the opticalinterruption event 180 being no longer in use for data transmission. Thelatency mappings 159, 126 can be synced based on the amount of bandwidththat is available due to the faulty optical lane 182A. In someembodiments, the latency mapping 126 can be synced with the latencymapping 159 via the optical protocol message 184 that instructs thecontroller 122 to update the latency mapping 126.

From operation 212, the method can proceed to operation 214, where thecontroller 122 of the first MLOT 118 can determine whether a subsequentdata package 108 has been received, and if so, whether the subsequentdata package 108 has a network latency indicator 109. In an embodimentwhere the subsequent data package 108 does not have a network latencyindicator 109, the method 210 can proceed along the NO path fromoperation 214 to operation 216, where the controller 122 can route thesubsequent data package 108 to the MLOP 1 using the optical lanes thatare not associated with the optical interruption event 180 (e.g., theoptical lanes 182B-182N). In an embodiment where the subsequent datapackage 108 has a network latency indicator 109, the method 210 canproceed along the YES path from operation 214 to operation 218.

At operation 218, the controller 122 of the first MLOT 118 can determinewhether the internal bypass route 136 should be invoked. For example,the controller 122 can analyze and compare the time indicated by thenetwork latency indicator 109 of the subsequent data package 108 withthe time associated with the MLOP 1 indicated in the latency mapping126. If the time indicated for the MLOP 1 in the latency mapping 126 isless than the time indicated by the network latency indicator 109 of thesubsequent data package 108, then the controller 122 determines that theinternal bypass route 136 should not be invoked, and method 210 canproceed along the NO path to operation 216, where the subsequent datapackage 108 can be routed along the MLOP 1 using the optical lanes182B-182N that do not correspond with the optical interruption event180. In an embodiment where the time indicated for the MLOP 1 in thelatency mapping 126 is equal to or greater than the time indicated bythe network latency indicator 109 of the subsequent data package 108,then the controller 122 determines that the internal bypass route 136should be invoked, and method 210 can proceed along the YES path tooperation 220.

At operation 220, the controller 122 of the first MLOT 118 can invokethe internal bypass route 136 and route at least some and/or all of thesubsequent data package 108 along the internal bypass route 136 to thesecond MLOT 146 and to the fourth MLOT 154 of the second network element150 via the MLOP 2. The controller 158 of the third MLOT 156 can receiveat least some and/or all of the subsequent data package 108 via theinternal bypass route 137 of the second network element 150.

From operation 220, the method 210 can proceed to operation 222, whereone or more of the controllers 122, 158 can determine whether theoptical interruption event 180 has ceased. For example, at least one ofthe controllers 122, 158 can determine whether a wavelengthcorresponding to the optical lane 182A has been detected, and if so, candetermine that the optical interruption event has ceased. If thewavelength corresponding to the optical lane 182A continues to not bedetected, then the controllers 122, 158 can determine that the opticalinterruption event 180 remains active and has not ceased.

In an embodiment, if the optical interruption event 180 has not ceased,the method 210 can proceed from operation 222 along the NO path tooperation 226, where at least one of the controllers 122, 158 cancontinue to check whether the optical interruption event 180 has ceasedto occur. In an embodiment, the method 210 can proceed from operation226 to operation 228, where the method 210 can end.

In an embodiment, if the optical interruption event 180 has ceased, themethod 210 can proceed from operation 222 along the YES path tooperation 224, where at least one of the controllers 122, 158 can updatethe latency mappings 126, 159 corresponding to each of the first MLOT118 and the third MLOT 156, respectively. From operation 224, the method210 can proceed to operation 228, where the method 210 can end.

Turning now to FIG. 3, details of a network 300 are illustrated,according to an illustrative embodiment. In some embodiments, thenetwork 110 can be embodied as the network 300. The network 300 includesa cellular network 302, a packet data network 304, for example, theInternet, the optical transport network 305, and a circuit switchednetwork 306, for example, a PSTN. The cellular network 302 includesvarious network components such as, but not limited to, base transceiverstations (“BTSs”), NBs or eNBs, base station controllers (“BSCs”), radionetwork controllers (“RNCs”), mobile switching centers (“MSCs”), MMEs,short message service centers (“SMSCs”), multimedia messaging servicecenters (“MMSCs”), home location registers (“HLRs”), HSSs, VLRs”),charging platforms, billing platforms, voicemail platforms, GPRS corenetwork components, location service nodes, an IP Multimedia Subsystem(“IMS”), and the like. The cellular network 302 also includes radios andnodes for receiving and transmitting voice, data, and combinationsthereof to and from radio transceivers, networks, the packet datanetwork 304, and the circuit switched network 306.

A mobile communications device 308, such as, for example, a cellulartelephone, a user equipment, a mobile terminal, a PDA, a laptopcomputer, a handheld computer, and combinations thereof, can beoperatively connected to the cellular network 302. In some embodiments,the user equipment 104 and/or the user equipment 194 can be configuredas the mobile communications device 308. The cellular network 302 can beconfigured as a 2G GSM network and can provide data communications viaGPRS and/or EDGE. Additionally, or alternatively, the cellular network302 can be configured as a 3G UMTS network and can provide datacommunications via the HSPA protocol family, for example, HSDPA, EUL(also referred to as HSUPA), and HSPA+. The cellular network 302 also iscompatible with 4G mobile communications standards such as LTE, or thelike, as well as evolved and future mobile standards, such asLTE-Advanced and LTE-U.

The packet data network 304 includes various devices, for example,servers, computers, databases, and other devices in communication withanother, as is generally known. The packet data network 304 devices areaccessible via one or more network links. The servers often storevarious files that are provided to a requesting device such as, forexample, a computer, a terminal, a smartphone, or the like. Typically,the requesting device includes software (a “browser”) for executing aweb page in a format readable by the browser or other software. Otherfiles and/or data may be accessible via “links” in the retrieved files,as is generally known. In some embodiments, the packet data network 304includes or is in communication with the Internet. In some embodiments,the network 110 can be configured to include a packet data network, suchas the packet data network 304. The optical transport network 305 caninclude a set of network elements that are communicatively coupled byoptical fiber paths and are able to provide functionality of transport,multiplexing, switching, management, supervision and survivability ofoptical channels, retiming, reshaping, reamplifying, and relaying. Thenetwork 110 can include the optical transport network 305. The circuitswitched network 306 includes various hardware and software forproviding circuit switched communications. The circuit switched network306 may include, or may be, what is often referred to as a POTS. In someembodiments, the network 110 also can be configured as a circuitswitched network, such as the circuit switched network 306. Thefunctionality of a circuit switched network 306 or othercircuit-switched network are generally known and will not be describedherein in detail.

The illustrated cellular network 302 is shown in communication with thepacket data network 304 and a circuit switched network 306, though itshould be appreciated that this is not necessarily the case. One or moreInternet-capable devices 310, for example, a network element, a PC, alaptop, a portable device, a user equipment, or another suitable device,can communicate with one or more cellular networks 302, and devicesconnected thereto, through the packet data network 304. It also shouldbe appreciated that the Internet-capable device 310 can communicate withthe packet data network 304 through the circuit switched network 306,the cellular network 302, and/or via other networks (not illustrated).

As illustrated, a communications device 312, for example, a telephone,facsimile machine, modem, computer, or the like, can be in communicationwith the circuit switched network 306, and therethrough to the packetdata network 304 and/or the cellular network 302. It should beappreciated that the communications device 312 can be anInternet-capable device, and can be substantially similar to theInternet-capable device 310. In the specification, the network of FIG. 3is used to refer broadly to any combination of the networks 302, 304,305, 306 shown in FIG. 3. It should be appreciated that, in someembodiments, substantially all of the functionality described withreference to the network 110 can be performed by one or more of theoptical transport network 305, the cellular network 302, the packet datanetwork 304, and/or the circuit switched network 306, alone or incombination with other networks, network elements, and the like,according at least to aspects of the features and operations discussedherein.

Turning now to FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a computer system400 configured to provide the functionality in accordance with variousembodiments of the concepts and technologies disclosed herein. Thesystems, devices, and other components disclosed herein can utilize, atleast in part, an architecture that is the same as or at least similarto the architecture of the computer system 400. In some embodiments, atleast a portion of one or more of the first network element 114, thesecond network element 150, the network access point 112, the opticalnetwork terminal 192, and/or the network management system 188 can beconfigured like the computer system 400. It should be understood,however, that modification to the architecture may be made to facilitatecertain interactions among elements described herein.

The computer system 400 includes a processing unit 402, a memory 404,one or more user interface devices 406, one or more input/output (“I/O”)devices 408, and one or more network devices 410, each of which isoperatively connected to a system bus 412. The system bus 412 enablesbi-directional communication between the processing unit 402, the memory404, the user interface devices 406, the I/O devices 408, and thenetwork devices 410.

The processing unit 402 may be a standard central processor thatperforms arithmetic and logical operations, a more specific purposeprogrammable logic controller (“PLC”), a programmable gate array, orother type of processor known to those skilled in the art and suitablefor controlling the operation of the server computer. Processing unitsare generally known, and therefore are not described in further detailherein.

The memory 404 communicates with the processing unit 402 via the systembus 412. In some embodiments, the memory 404 is operatively connected toa memory controller (not shown) that enables communication with theprocessing unit 402 via the system bus 412. The illustrated memory 404includes an operating system 414 and one or more program modules 416.The operating system 414 can include, but is not limited to, members ofthe WINDOWS, WINDOWS CE, and/or WINDOWS MOBILE families of operatingsystems from MICROSOFT CORPORATION, the LINUX family of operatingsystems, the SYMBIAN family of operating systems from SYMBIAN LIMITED,the BREW family of operating systems from QUALCOMM CORPORATION, the MACOS, OS X, and/or iOS families of operating systems from APPLECORPORATION, the FREEBSD family of operating systems, the SOLARIS familyof operating systems from ORACLE CORPORATION, other operating systems,and the like.

The program modules 416 may include various software and/or programmodules to perform the various operations described herein. In someembodiments, for example, the program modules 416 can include ananalysis module that is embedded within one or more of the controllers122, 158. These and/or other programs can be embodied incomputer-readable media containing instructions that, when executed bythe processing unit 402, in some embodiments, may perform and/orfacilitate performance of one or more of the method 200 and the method210 described in detail above with respect to FIGS. 2A and 2B, as wellas operations discussed with respect to FIG. 1. According to someembodiments, the program modules 416 may be embodied in hardware,software, firmware, or any combination thereof. Although not shown inFIG. 4, it should be understood that the memory 404 also can beconfigured to store data, such as but not limited to, the opticalinterruption event 180, the optical protocol alarm 181, the opticalprotocol message 184, the optical transmission command 185, thetransmission configuration 157, the latency mapping 159, thetransmission configuration 124, the latency mapping 126, the datapackage 106, the subsequent data package 108, the reassembled datapackage 111, and/or other data, if desired.

By way of example, and not limitation, computer-readable media mayinclude any available computer storage media or communication media thatcan be accessed by the computer system 400. Communication media includescomputer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, orother data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or othertransport mechanism and includes any delivery media. The term “modulateddata signal” means a signal that has one or more of its characteristicschanged or set in a manner as to encode information in the signal. Byway of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wiredmedia such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wirelessmedia such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media.Combinations of the any of the above should also be included within thescope of computer-readable media.

Computer storage media includes volatile and non-volatile, removable andnon-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storageof information such as computer-readable instructions, data structures,program modules, or other data. Computer storage media includes, but isnot limited to, RAM, ROM, Erasable Programmable ROM (“EPROM”),Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM (“EEPROM”), flash memory or othersolid state memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (“DVD”),or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magneticdisk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other mediumwhich can be used to store the desired information and which can beaccessed by the computer system 400. In the claims, the phrase “computerstorage medium” and variations thereof does not include waves or signalsper se and/or communication media.

The user interface devices 406 may include one or more devices withwhich a user accesses the computer system 400. The user interfacedevices 406 may include, but are not limited to, computers, servers,PDAs, cellular phones, or any suitable computing devices. The I/Odevices 408 enable a user to interface with the program modules 416. Inone embodiment, the I/O devices 408 are operatively connected to an I/Ocontroller (not shown) that enables communication with the processingunit 402 via the system bus 412. The I/O devices 408 may include one ormore input devices, such as, but not limited to, a keyboard, a mouse, oran electronic stylus. Further, the I/O devices 408 may include one ormore output devices, such as, but not limited to, a display screen or aprinter. In some embodiments, the I/O devices 408 can be used for manualcontrols for operations to exercise under certain emergency situations.

The network devices 410 enable the computer system 400 to communicatewith other networks or remote systems via a network 418, such as thenetwork 110). Examples of the network devices 410 include, but are notlimited to, a modem, a radio frequency (“RF”) or infrared (“IR”)transceiver, a telephonic interface, a bridge, a network interface, anoptical terminal, a router, or a network card. The network 418 may be ormay include a wireless network such as, but not limited to, a WirelessLocal Area Network (“WLAN”), a Wireless Wide Area Network (“WWAN”), aWireless Personal Area Network (“WPAN”) such as provided via BLUETOOTHtechnology, a Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (“WMAN”) such as aWiMAX network or metropolitan cellular network. Alternatively, and/oradditionally, the network 418 may be or may include a wired network suchas, but not limited to, a Wide Area Network (“WAN”), a wired PersonalArea Network (“PAN”), a wired Metropolitan Area Network (“MAN”), a VoIPnetwork, an IP/MPLS network, a PSTN network, an IMS network, an EPCnetwork, an MBSF network, an optical transport network, a combinationthereof, or any other mobile network and/or wireline network.

Turning now to FIG. 5, an illustrative mobile device 500 and componentsthereof will be described. In some embodiments, one or more of the userequipment 104, 194 (shown in FIG. 1) can be configured like the mobiledevice 500. While connections are not shown between the variouscomponents illustrated in FIG. 5, it should be understood that some,none, or all of the components illustrated in FIG. 5 can be configuredto interact with one other to carry out various device functions. Insome embodiments, the components are arranged so as to communicate viaone or more busses (not shown). Thus, it should be understood that FIG.5 and the following description are intended to provide a generalunderstanding of a suitable environment in which various aspects ofembodiments can be implemented, and should not be construed as beinglimiting in any way.

As illustrated in FIG. 5, the mobile device 500 can include a display502 for displaying data. According to various embodiments, the display502 can be configured to display various graphical user interface(“GUI”) elements, text, images, video, virtual keypads and/or keyboards,messaging data, notification messages, metadata, internet content,device status, time, date, calendar data, device preferences, map andlocation data, combinations thereof, and/or the like. The mobile device500 also can include a processor 504 and a memory or other data storagedevice (“memory”) 506. The processor 504 can be configured to processdata and/or can execute computer-executable instructions stored in thememory 506. The computer-executable instructions executed by theprocessor 504 can include, for example, an operating system 508, one ormore applications 510, other computer-executable instructions stored ina memory 506, or the like. In some embodiments, the applications 510also can include a user interface (“UI”) application (not illustrated inFIG. 5).

The UI application can interface with the operating system 508 tofacilitate user interaction with functionality and/or data stored at themobile device 500 and/or stored elsewhere. In some embodiments, theoperating system 508 can include a member of the SYMBIAN OS family ofoperating systems from SYMBIAN LIMITED, a member of the WINDOWS MOBILEOS and/or WINDOWS PHONE OS families of operating systems from MICROSOFTCORPORATION, a member of the PALM WEBOS family of operating systems fromHEWLETT PACKARD CORPORATION, a member of the BLACKBERRY OS family ofoperating systems from RESEARCH IN MOTION LIMITED, a member of the IOSfamily of operating systems from APPLE INC., a member of the ANDROID OSfamily of operating systems from GOOGLE INC., and/or other operatingsystems. These operating systems are merely illustrative of somecontemplated operating systems that may be used in accordance withvarious embodiments of the concepts and technologies described hereinand therefore should not be construed as being limiting in any way.

The UI application can be executed by the processor 504 to aid a user inentering content, viewing content provided across the network 110,entering/deleting data, entering and setting local credentials (e.g.,user IDs and passwords) for device access, configuring settings,manipulating address book content and/or settings, multimodeinteraction, interacting with other applications 510 (e.g., a videoplayback application 511), and otherwise facilitating user interactionwith the operating system 508, the applications 510, and/or other typesor instances of data 512 that can be stored at the mobile device 500.The data 512 can include, for example, one or more identifiers and/ordata packages, and/or other applications or program modules. In someembodiments, the data 512 can include one or more of the data package106, the subsequent data package 108, the reassembled data package 111,and/or other data sent among and/or between the user equipment 104 andthe user equipment 194. According to various embodiments, theapplications 510 can include, for example, presence applications, visualvoice mail applications, messaging applications, text-to-speech andspeech-to-text applications, add-ons, plug-ins, email applications,music applications, video applications, camera applications,location-based service applications, power conservation applications,game applications, productivity applications, entertainmentapplications, enterprise applications, combinations thereof, and thelike. The applications 510, the data 512, and/or portions thereof can bestored in the memory 506 and/or in a firmware 514, and can be executedby the processor 504. The firmware 514 also can store code for executionduring device power up and power down operations. It can be appreciatedthat the firmware 514 can be stored in a volatile or non-volatile datastorage device including, but not limited to, the memory 506 and/or aportion thereof.

The mobile device 500 also can include an input/output (“I/O”) interface516. The I/O interface 516 can be configured to support the input/outputof data such as location information, user information, organizationinformation, presence status information, user IDs, passwords, andapplication initiation (start-up) requests. In some embodiments, the I/Ointerface 516 can include a hardwire connection such as USB port, amini-USB port, a micro-USB port, an audio jack, a PS2 port, an IEEE 1394(“FIREWIRE”) port, a serial port, a parallel port, an Ethernet (RJ45)port, an RJ10 port, a proprietary port, combinations thereof, or thelike. In some embodiments, the mobile device 500 can be configured tosynchronize with another device to transfer content to and/or from themobile device 500. In some embodiments, the mobile device 500 can beconfigured to receive updates to one or more of the applications 510 viathe I/O interface 516, though this is not necessarily the case. In someembodiments, the I/O interface 516 accepts I/O devices such askeyboards, keypads, mice, interface tethers, printers, plotters,external storage, touch/multi-touch screens, touch pads, trackballs,joysticks, microphones, remote control devices, displays, projectors,medical equipment (e.g., stethoscopes, heart monitors, and other healthmetric monitors), modems, routers, external power sources, dockingstations, combinations thereof, and the like. It should be appreciatedthat the I/O interface 516 may be used for communications between themobile device 500 and a network device or local device.

The mobile device 500 also can include a communications component 518.The communications component 518 can be configured to interface with theprocessor 504 to facilitate wired and/or wireless communications withone or more networks such as one or more IP access networks and/or oneor more circuit access networks. In some embodiments, other networksinclude networks that utilize non-cellular wireless technologies such asWI-FI or WIMAX. In some embodiments, the communications component 518includes a multimode communications subsystem for facilitatingcommunications via the cellular network and one or more other networks.

The communications component 518, in some embodiments, includes one ormore transceivers. The one or more transceivers, if included, can beconfigured to communicate over the same and/or different wirelesstechnology standards with respect to one another. For example, in someembodiments one or more of the transceivers of the communicationscomponent 518 may be configured to communicate using Global System forMobile communications (“GSM”), Code Division Multiple Access (“CDMA”)ONE, CDMA2000, Long-Term Evolution (“LTE”) in licensed spectrum andunlicensed spectrum, and various other 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 4G, 5G and greatergeneration technology standards. Moreover, the communications component518 may facilitate communications over various channel access methods(which may or may not be used by the aforementioned standards)including, but not limited to, Time-Division Multiple Access (“TDMA”),Frequency-Division Multiple Access (“FDMA”), Wideband CDMA (“W-CDMA”),Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (“OFDM”), Space-DivisionMultiple Access (“SDMA”), and the like.

In addition, the communications component 518 may facilitate datacommunications using Generic Packet Radio Service (“GPRS”), EnhancedData Rates for Global Evolution (“EDGE”), the High-Speed Packet Access(“HSPA”) protocol family including High-Speed Download Packet Access(“HSDPA”), Enhanced Uplink (“EUL”) or otherwise termed High-Speed UploadPacket Access (“HSUPA”), HSPA+, and various other current and futurewireless data access standards. In the illustrated embodiment, thecommunications component 518 can include a first transceiver (“TxRx”)520A that can operate in a first communications mode (e.g., GSM). Thecommunications component 518 also can include an N^(th) transceiver(“TxRx”) 520N that can operate in a second communications mode relativeto the first transceiver 520A (e.g., UMTS). While two transceivers520A-520N (hereinafter collectively and/or generically referred to as“transceivers 520”) are shown in FIG. 5, it should be appreciated thatless than two, two, and/or more than two transceivers 520 can beincluded in the communications component 518.

The communications component 518 also can include an alternativetransceiver (“Alt TxRx”) 522 for supporting other types and/or standardsof communications. According to various contemplated embodiments, thealternative transceiver 522 can communicate using various communicationstechnologies such as, for example, WI-FI, WIMAX, BLUETOOTH, infrared,infrared data association (“IRDA”), near-field communications (“NFC”),ZIGBEE, other radio frequency (“RF”) technologies, combinations thereof,and the like.

In some embodiments, the communications component 518 also canfacilitate reception from terrestrial radio networks, digital satelliteradio networks, internet-based radio service networks, combinationsthereof, and the like. The communications component 518 can process datafrom a network such as the Internet, an intranet, a broadband network, aWI-FI hotspot, an Internet service provider (“ISP”), a digitalsubscriber line (“DSL”) provider, a broadband provider, combinationsthereof, or the like.

The mobile device 500 also can include one or more sensors 524. Thesensors 524 can include temperature sensors, light sensors, air qualitysensors, movement sensors, orientation sensors, noise sensors, proximitysensors, or the like. As such, it should be understood that the sensors524 can include, but are not limited to, accelerometers, magnetometers,gyroscopes, infrared sensors, noise sensors, microphones, combinationsthereof, or the like. Additionally, audio capabilities for the mobiledevice 500 may be provided by an audio I/O component 526. The audio I/Ocomponent 526 of the mobile device 500 can include one or more speakersfor the output of audio signals, one or more microphones for thecollection and/or input of audio signals, and/or other audio inputand/or output devices.

The illustrated mobile device 500 also can include a subscriber identitymodule (“SIM”) system 528. The SIM system 528 can include a universalSIM (“USIM”), a universal integrated circuit card (“UICC”) and/or otheridentity devices. The SIM system 528 can include and/or can be connectedto or inserted into an interface such as a slot interface 530. In someembodiments, the slot interface 530 can be configured to acceptinsertion of other identity cards or modules for accessing various typesof networks. Additionally, or alternatively, the slot interface 530 canbe configured to accept multiple subscriber identity cards. Becauseother devices and/or modules for identifying users and/or the mobiledevice 500 are contemplated, it should be understood that theseembodiments are illustrative, and should not be construed as beinglimiting in any way.

The mobile device 500 also can include an image capture and processingsystem 532 (“image system”). The image system 532 can be configured tocapture or otherwise obtain photos, videos, and/or other visualinformation. As such, the image system 532 can include cameras, lenses,charge-coupled devices (“CCDs”), combinations thereof, or the like. Themobile device 500 may also include a video system 534. The video system534 can be configured to capture, process, record, modify, and/or storevideo content. Photos and videos obtained using the image system 532 andthe video system 534, respectively, may be added as message content toan MMS message, email message, and sent to another mobile device. Thevideo and/or photo content also can be shared with other devices viavarious types of data transfers via wired and/or wireless communicationdevices as described herein.

The mobile device 500 also can include one or more location components536. The location components 536 can be configured to send and/orreceive signals to determine a geographic location of the mobile device500. According to various embodiments, the location components 536 cansend and/or receive signals from global positioning system (“GPS”)devices, assisted GPS (“A-GPS”) devices, WI-FI/WIMAX and/or cellularnetwork triangulation data, combinations thereof, and the like. Thelocation component 536 also can be configured to communicate with thecommunications component 518 to retrieve triangulation data fordetermining a location of the mobile device 500. In some embodiments,the location component 536 can interface with cellular network nodes,telephone lines, satellites, location transmitters and/or beacons,wireless network transmitters and receivers, combinations thereof, andthe like. In some embodiments, the location component 536 can includeand/or can communicate with one or more of the sensors 524 such as acompass, an accelerometer, and/or a gyroscope to determine theorientation of the mobile device 500. Using the location component 536,the mobile device 500 can generate and/or receive data to identify itsgeographic location, or to transmit data used by other devices todetermine the location of the mobile device 500. The location component536 may include multiple components for determining the location and/ororientation of the mobile device 500.

The illustrated mobile device 500 also can include a power source 538.The power source 538 can include one or more batteries, power supplies,power cells, and/or other power subsystems including alternating current(“AC”) and/or direct current (“DC”) power devices. The power source 538also can interface with an external power system or charging equipmentvia a power I/O component 540. Because the mobile device 500 can includeadditional and/or alternative components, the above embodiment should beunderstood as being illustrative of one possible operating environmentfor various embodiments of the concepts and technologies describedherein. The described embodiment of the mobile device 500 isillustrative, and should not be construed as being limiting in any way.

Based on the foregoing, it should be appreciated that concepts andtechnologies directed to multi-lane optical transport network recoveryhave been disclosed herein. Although the subject matter presented hereinhas been described in language specific to computer structural features,methodological and transformative acts, specific computing machinery,and computer-readable media, it is to be understood that the conceptsand technologies disclosed herein are not necessarily limited to thespecific features, acts, or media described herein. Rather, the specificfeatures, acts and mediums are disclosed as example forms ofimplementing the concepts and technologies disclosed herein.

The subject matter described above is provided by way of illustrationonly and should not be construed as limiting. Various modifications andchanges may be made to the subject matter described herein withoutfollowing the example embodiments and applications illustrated anddescribed, and without departing from the true spirit and scope of theembodiments of the concepts and technologies disclosed herein.

1. A method comprising: detecting, by a multi-lane optical transceiver,an optical interruption event corresponding to an optical lane within amulti-lane optical path, wherein the multi-lane optical path comprisesthe optical lane corresponding to the optical interruption event and aplurality of optical lanes that do not correspond to the opticalinterruption event; instantiating, by the multi-lane opticaltransceiver, an optical protocol alarm based on the optical interruptionevent; generating, by the multi-lane optical transceiver, an opticalprotocol message based on the optical protocol alarm; and instructing,by the multi-lane optical transceiver via the optical protocol message,a peer multi-lane optical transceiver to alter optical transmissionalong the multi-lane optical path by routing power to a reserve opticaltransmitter to activate the reserve optical transmitter so as to provideoptical transmission along a reserve optical lane using a wavelengththat was associated with the optical lane corresponding with the opticalinterruption event.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the opticalprotocol message instructs the peer multi-lane optical transceiver toupdate a latency mapping stored on a controller communicatively coupledto the peer multi-lane optical transceiver.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein detecting the optical interruption event includes determiningthat a data transmission via the optical lane is interrupted for atleast a time period.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting theoptical interruption event includes determining that the wavelength isnot detected for the optical lane from the multi-lane optical path. 5.The method of claim 1, wherein the optical protocol message comprises anoptical transmission command that alters a transmission configurationimplemented by the peer multi-lane optical transceiver.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the optical protocol alarm comprises at least one of adescription of the optical interruption event, an identifier of themulti-lane optical transceiver, an identifier of the optical lanecorresponding to the optical interruption event, an amount of bandwidthprovided by the optical lane corresponding to the optical interruptionevent, or an indication of whether the optical protocol message wasgenerated in response to the optical interruption event.
 7. The methodof claim 1, further comprising providing the optical protocol alarm to anetwork management system.
 8. A multi-lane optical transceivercomprising: a transmitter optical sub-assembly; a receiver opticalsub-assembly; and a controller comprising a processor and a memory thatstores computer-executable instructions that, in response to executionby the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprisingdetecting an optical interruption event corresponding to an optical lanewithin a multi-lane optical path, wherein the multi-lane optical pathcomprises the optical lane corresponding to the optical interruptionevent and a plurality of optical lanes that do not correspond to theoptical interruption event, instantiating an optical protocol alarmbased on the optical interruption event, generating an optical protocolmessage based on the optical protocol alarm, and instructing, via theoptical protocol message, a peer multi-lane optical transceiver to alteroptical transmission along the multi-lane optical path by routing powerto a reserve optical transmitter to activate the reserve opticaltransmitter so as to provide optical transmission along a reserveoptical lane using a wavelength that was associated with the opticallane corresponding with the optical interruption event.
 9. Themulti-lane optical transceiver of claim 8, wherein the optical protocolmessage instructs the peer multi-lane optical transceiver to update alatency mapping stored on a controller communicatively coupled to thepeer multi-lane optical transceiver.
 10. The multi-lane opticaltransceiver of claim 8, wherein detecting the optical interruption eventincludes determining that a data transmission via the optical lane isinterrupted for at least a time period.
 11. The multi-lane opticaltransceiver of claim 8, wherein detecting the optical interruption eventincludes determining that the wavelength is not detected for the opticallane from the multi-lane optical path.
 12. The multi-lane opticaltransceiver of claim 8, wherein the optical protocol message comprisesan optical transmission command that alters a transmission configurationimplemented by the peer multi-lane optical transceiver.
 13. Themulti-lane optical transceiver of claim 8, wherein the optical protocolalarm comprises at least one of a description of the opticalinterruption event, an identifier of the multi-lane optical transceiver,an identifier of the optical lane corresponding to the opticalinterruption event, an amount of bandwidth provided by the optical lanecorresponding to the optical interruption event, or an indication ofwhether the optical protocol message was generated in response to theoptical interruption event.
 14. The multi-lane optical transceiver ofclaim 8, wherein the operations further comprise providing the opticalprotocol alarm to a network management system.
 15. A computer storagemedium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, inresponse to execution by a processor of a multi-lane opticaltransceiver, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:detecting an optical interruption event corresponding to an optical lanewithin a multi-lane optical path, wherein the multi-lane optical pathcomprises the optical lane corresponding to the optical interruptionevent and a plurality of optical lanes that do not correspond to theoptical interruption event; instantiating an optical protocol alarmbased on the optical interruption event; generating an optical protocolmessage based on the optical protocol alarm; and instructing, via theoptical protocol message, a peer multi-lane optical transceiver to alteroptical transmission along the multi-lane optical path by routing powerto a reserve optical transmitter to activate the reserve opticaltransmitter so as to provide optical transmission along a reserveoptical lane using a wavelength that was associated with the opticallane corresponding with the optical interruption event.
 16. The computerstorage medium of claim 15, wherein the optical protocol messageinstructs the peer multi-lane optical transceiver to update a latencymapping stored on a controller communicatively coupled to the peermulti-lane optical transceiver.
 17. The computer storage medium of claim15, wherein detecting the optical interruption event includesdetermining that a data transmission via the optical lane is interruptedfor at least a time period.
 18. The computer storage medium of claim 15,wherein detecting the optical interruption event includes determiningthat the wavelength is not detected for the optical lane from themulti-lane optical path.
 19. The computer storage medium of claim 15,wherein the optical protocol message comprises an optical transmissioncommand that alters a transmission configuration implemented by the peermulti-lane optical transceiver.
 20. The computer storage medium of claim15, wherein the optical protocol alarm comprises at least one of adescription of the optical interruption event, an identifier of themulti-lane optical transceiver, an identifier of the optical lanecorresponding to the optical interruption event, an amount of bandwidthprovided by the optical lane corresponding to the optical interruptionevent, or an indication of whether the optical protocol message wasgenerated in response to the optical interruption event.